Thoughts on Authentic Faith

Larry Kirk — Mon, 12 May 2008 04:28:06 +0000

This weekend’s message at Christ Community was one I thought important to deal with especially in the book of Acts. While several people spoke to me about the sermon, finding it helpful. I sensed in a few comments the thought that this was a “hard truth”. One said that this was something they were “really going to think about”. Now, if you are reading and didn’t hear the message it was titled: “The Mysteries of Authentic Faith”. The thing we looked at is the fact that while there are many miracles in Acts there are also many occasions where God does not intervene in miraculous ways, and sometimes doesn’t seem, at least to us, to intervene at all. Sometimes miracles happen and angels appear and guidance is given. On other occasions good people, suffer, get thrown in prison, seem weak in the face of their enemies and struggle to make the right decisions. There is no clear pattern just the promise of God’s presence and care. So the main idea of the message was that sometimes the ways of God are mysteriously unpredictable but authentic faith rejoices in God in spite of the mysteries.

Someone (who encouraged me to post this) said they thought many people might think this was a very different or even an “odd” sermon. Their idea was that although the point was biblical it was very different from the way most people at least in Daytona, are used to thinking. Is it possible that there is a perspective of faith that is absolutely biblical but so foreign to the thinking of people today? If so why is that? What do you think? Here are a couple of passages from the last part of the sermon:

The apostles did not see the details of their lives as a litmus test for the love of God. They did not see the presence of the miraculous, or deliverance from suffering, or constant guidance as test of the love of God. They saw these things, or the absence of them, as test of their faith in the God who had more than proven his love and shown that he cared in Jesus and the whole story of the gospel. They surrendered their expectations, trusted his promises and rejoiced in his love.

Paul, who lived the experience of Acts, later revealed his way of thinking and his source of strength.

Roman 8:35-36:Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

Those are the difficulties. They are not minimized. But look at the faith with which they are faced:

Roman 8:37-39, No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul doesn’t do what we modern people too often do. He does not say, “When trouble hardship or other difficulties and mysteries come, we call into question the love of God”. No! He says, when these things come we look at Christ and the gospel and we draw strength for the struggle from our convictions about the love of God in Christ.

I think it was from N.T. Wright that I got the idea that in Acts 5 Gamaliel raised a question and left it open ended: “These Christians; is God for them or against them?” But for the apostles this was one issue that was not a mystery. It had been decided through the death and resurrection of Jesus. God is for us as His people! Whatever mysteries there may be along the way that isn’t one of them. Even when that’s all you know it is a lot.

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Thoughts on Authentic Faith